Long-term effects of early life stress on neurodevelopment / 中华围产医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Early life stress can have long-term effects on human health.Both prenatal and postnatal stress exposure affect offspring's neurodevelopment,and increase the risk of emotional disorders and cognitive and behavioral abnormalities.However,these effects are gender and species specific and individualized with intergenerational influence.Many factors,including neurobiological responses,such as glucocorticoid,brainderived neurotrophic factors,glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid,neuroimmune network function as well as epigenetic regulation of key functional genes in stress response,play important roles in the long-term effects of early life stress on neurodevelopment.Various postnatal environment can alleviate the neurological and behavioral abnormalities induced by stress.Therefore,the risk of long-term effects may be reduced along with environment optimization.